Approximately 1 hour before the Juventus-Liverpool final was due to kick off, a large group of Liverpool fans breached a fence separating them from a "neutral area" which contained mostly Juventus fans. The latter ran back on the terraces and away from the threat into a concrete retaining wall. Fans already seated near the wall were crushed; eventually the wall collapsed. Many people climbed over to safety, but many others died or were badly injured. The game was played despite the disaster in order to prevent further violence, with Juventus winning 1-0.[3]

The tragedy resulted in all English football clubs being placed under an indefinite ban by UEFA from all European competitions (lifted in 1990–91), with Liverpool being excluded for an additional 3 years, later reduced to 1,[4] and fourteen Liverpool fans found guilty of manslaughter and each sentenced to three years' imprisonment. The disaster was later described as "the darkest hour in the history of the UEFA competitions".[5]

Despite its status as Belgium's national stadium, the Heysel Stadium was in a poor state of repair by the time of the 1985 European Final. The 55-year-old stadium had not been sufficiently maintained for several years, and large parts of the stadium were literally crumbling. For example, the outer wall had been made of cinder block, and fans who did not have tickets were seen kicking holes in it to get in.[8] Liverpool players and fans later said that they were shocked at the abject conditions of the ground, despite reports from Arsenal fans that the stadium was a "dump" when the Gunners played there a few years earlier. They were also surprised that Heysel was chosen despite its poor condition, especially since Barcelona's Camp Nou and Bernabéu in Madrid were both available. Juventus president Giampiero Boniperti and Liverpool CEO Peter Robinson urged UEFA to choose another venue, claiming that Heysel was not suitable to host a European Final, and certainly not one involving two of the most powerful clubs in Europe. However, UEFA refused to consider a move.[9][10]

The stadium was crammed with 58,000–60,000 supporters, with more than 25,000 for each team. The two ends behind the goals comprised all-standing terraces, each end split into three zones. The Juventus end was O, N and M. At the other end Liverpool were allocated X and Y, with the Z section (to one side) being reserved for neutral Belgian fans. The idea of this large neutral area was opposed by both Liverpool and Juventus,[11] as it would provide an opportunity for fans of both clubs to obtain tickets from agencies or from ticket touts outside the ground and thus create a dangerous mix of fans.

At the time Brussels, like the rest of Belgium, already had a large Italian community, and many expatriate Juventus fans bought the section Z tickets.[12] Added to this, many tickets were bought up and sold by travel agents, mainly to Juventus fans. A small percentage of the tickets ended up in the hands of Liverpool fans.

At approximately 7 p.m. local time, an hour before kick-off, the trouble started.[13] The Liverpool and Juventus supporters in sections X and Z stood merely yards apart. The boundary between the two was marked by temporary chain link fencing and a central thinly policed no-man's land.[14] Missiles began to be thrown by both fans across the divide. Fans were able to pick up stones from the terraces beneath them.

As kick-off approached, the throwing became more intense. A group of Liverpool fans moved towards the side perimeter wall, near to the corner flag. Juventus fans tried to climb over the wall to escape. Many succeeded; however, the wall could not withstand the force of the fleeing Juventus supporters and collapsed.

It was at this point that the majority of the deaths occurred — 39 people died, and a further 600 were injured.[14][15] Bodies were carried away on sections of iron fencing and laid in piles outside, covered with giant football flags. As police and medical helicopters flew in, the down-draught blew away the modest coverings.

In retaliation for the events in section Z, Juventus fans then rioted at their end of the stadium. They advanced down the stadium running track towards the Liverpool supporters, but police intervention stopped the advance. The Juventus fans fought the police with rocks, bottles and missiles for two hours. One Juventus fan was captured on television footage apparently firing a pistol (later verified as being a starting pistol). When the game kicked off, riot police were still fighting a pitched battle with Juventus supporters, and they maintained a presence around the entire pitch for the duration of the game.

Before the main match, a friendly game was played by very young Belgian selection players, who were playing in colours identical to the cup contestants. In their first half, the red Belgian team built a 3–0 lead, to the delight of the Liverpool fans who were acting as if the cup game had already started. When the white selection team scored in the second half, around 19:10, the English and Italian fans were starting to brawl. With several minutes to go, the game was called off and the young players were taken away.[16]

Despite the scale of the disaster, UEFA officials, Belgium Prime Minister Wilfried Martens, Brussels Mayor Hervé Brouhon, and the city's Police Force felt that abandoning the match would have risked inciting further trouble and violence, and the match eventually kicked off after the captains of both sides spoke to the crowd and appealed for calm.[17]

Juventus won the match 1–0 thanks to a penalty scored by Michel Platini, awarded by Swiss referee Daina for a foul against Zbigniew Boniek.[18]

At the end of the game the trophy was given in front of the stadium's Honor Stand by the confederation president Jacques Georges to Juventus captain Gaetano Scirea. Due to collective hysteria generated by the massive invasion of the pitch by journalists and fans at the end of the match,[19] and the chants of fans of both teams in the stands,[20] some Italian club players celebrated the title in the middle of the pitch among them and in front of their fans in the M section, while some Liverpool players applauded their fans between the X and Z sections.[21]

According to former Liverpool striker Ian Rush, the institutional relationships between both clubs and their fans improved during his career in Italy.[9]

Initially, the entire blame for the incident was laid on the fans of Liverpool FC. On 30 May official UEFA observer Gunter Schneider said, "Only the English fans were responsible. Of that there is no doubt." UEFA, the organiser of the event, the owners of Heysel Stadium and the Belgian police were investigated for culpability. After an 18-month investigation, the dossier of top Belgian judge Marina Coppieters was finally published. It concluded that blame should not rest solely with the English fans, and that some culpability lay with the police and authorities. Several top officials were incriminated by some of the dossier’s findings, including police captain Johan Mahieu, who had been in charge of security on 29 May 1985 and was subsequently charged with involuntary manslaughter.

On 31 May, British Prime MinisterMargaret Thatcher put pressure upon the FA to withdraw English clubs from European competition,[22] and 2 days later UEFA banned English clubs for "an indeterminate period of time". On 6 June FIFA extended the ban to all worldwide matches, but this was modified a week later to allow friendly matches to take place. The ban did not apply to the England national team. English clubs were banned indefinitely from European club competitions. In the end, all English clubs were banned for 5 years, and Liverpool for 6. The British police undertook a thorough investigation to bring to justice the perpetrators. Some 17 minutes of film and many still photographs were examined. TV Eye produced an hour-long programme featuring the footage and the British press also published the photographs.

There were 27 arrests on suspicion of manslaughter – the only extraditable offence applicable to events at Heysel. Most of these people had previous convictions for football-related violence. In 1989, after a 5-month trial in Belgium, 14 fans were given 3-year sentences for involuntary manslaughter.[23]

A memorial service for those killed in the disaster was held before Liverpool's match with Arsenal at Anfield on 18 August 1985, however according to The Sydney Morning Herald, it was "drowned out" by chanting.[24]

Heysel Stadium continued to be used for hosting athletics for almost a decade, but no further football matches took place in the old stadium. In 1994, the stadium was almost completely rebuilt as King Baudouin Stadium. On 28 August 1995 the new stadium welcomed the return of football to Heysel in the form of a friendly match between Belgium and Germany. It then hosted a major European final on 8 May 1996 when Paris Saint-Germain defeated Rapid Vienna 1–0 to win the Cup Winners' Cup.

After Heysel, English clubs began to impose stricter rules intended to make it easier to prevent troublemakers from attending domestic games, with legal provision to exclude troublemakers for 3 months introduced in 1986, and the Football (Offences) Act introduced in 1991.

Serious progress on legal banning orders preventing foreign travel to matches was arguably not made until the violence involving England fans (allegedly mainly involving neo-Nazi groups, such as Combat 18) at a match against Irelandon February 18th 1995 and violent scenes at the 1998 FIFA World Cup. Rioting at UEFA Euro 2000 saw introduction of new legislation and wider use of police powers – by 2004, 2,000 banning orders were in place, compared to fewer than 100 before Euro 2000.[25][26]

The main reforms to English stadiums came after the Taylor Report into the Hillsborough disaster in which 96 people died in 1989. All-seater stadia became a requirement for clubs in the top 2 divisions while pitchside fencing was removed and closed-circuit cameras have been installed. Fans who misbehave can have their tickets revoked and be legally barred from attending games at any English stadium.

For the duration of the ban arising from the Heysel disaster, 20 teams missed out on the chance to play in the three European competitions. The table below lists these teams, but does not capture the hidden effect of the European ban, in that many of the top players and managers left English teams for the opportunity of playing in Europe, thus weakening the teams they left behind.

It is often said by Everton fans that of all the teams affected by the ban the team that suffered most were Liverpool's local rivals, Everton, who would have qualified for European competitions in four of the five seasons that the ban was in duration. This included two campaigns in the European Cup. Another of Liverpool's main rivals, Manchester United, missed out of European qualification on three occasions during the duration of the ban.

Welsh clubs playing in the English league system, who could qualify for the Cup Winners' Cup through the Welsh Cup, were unaffected by the ban.

Even after the ban was lifted, English teams had to wait five seasons before earning back all of the European places which they had held before 1985. Some of the above regarding seasons 1985-1989 is hypothetical because places in the UEFA cup were awarded on the basis of how well teams from each country did. Therefore the number places available in 1987-1991 would have been reduced if English teams had been knocked out early in the previous season, particularly as some of the traditional weaker sides in the First Division (including Coventry City, Wimbledon and Luton Town) qualified for European competitions during this time.

In 1985, a memorial was presented to the victims at the Juventus headquarters in Piazza Crimea, in Turin. The monument includes an epitaph written by Torinese journalist Giovanni Arpino. Since 2001 it is in front of the current club's headquarter in Corso Galileo Ferraris.[28]

During Euro 2000, members of the Italian team left flowers on the site, in honor of the victims.

On 29 May 2005, a £140,000 sculpture was unveiled at the new Heysel stadium, to commemorate the disaster. The monument is a sundial designed by French artist Patrick Rimoux and includes Italian and Belgian stone and the poem Funeral Blues by Englishman W. H. Auden to symbolise the sorrow of the three countries. Thirty-nine lights shine, one for each who died that night.[29]

Juventus and Liverpool were drawn together in the quarter-finals of the 2005 Champions League, their first meeting since Heysel. Before the first leg at Anfield, Liverpool fans held up placards to form a banner saying "amicizia" ("friendship" in Italian). Many of the Juventus fans applauded the gesture, although a significant number chose to turn their backs on it.[30] In the return leg in Turin, Juventus fans displayed banners reading Easy to speak, difficult to pardon: murders and 15-4-89. Sheffield. God exists, the latter a reference to the Hillsborough disaster, in which 96 Liverpool fans were killed in a crush. A number of Liverpool fans were attacked in the city by Juventus ultras.[31]

British composer Michael Nyman wrote a piece called "Memorial" which was originally part of a larger work of the same name written in 1985 in memory of the Juventus fans who died at Heysel Stadium.

On Wednesday 26 May 2010, a permanent plaque was unveiled on the Centenary Stand at Anfield to honor the Juventus fans who died 25 years earlier. This plaque is one of two permanent memorials to be found at Anfield, along with one for the 96 fans killed in the Hillsborough disaster in 1989.

On May 2012 a Heysel Memorial was unveiled in the J-Museum at Turin. There is also a tribute to the disaster's victims in the club's Walk of Fame in front of the Juventus Stadium. Two years latter Juventus' officials announced a memorial in the Continassa headquarter.

On February 2014, an exhibition in Turin was dedicated both to the Heysel tragedy and Superga air disaster. The name of the exhibition was "Settanta angeli in un unico cielo – Superga e Heysel tragedie sorelle" (70 angels in the same sky – Superga and Heysel sister tragedies) and gathered material from the 4th of May 1949 and the 29th of May 1985. [32]

Spaaij, Ramón (2007). "Football hooliganism as a transnational phenomenon: Past and present analysis: A critique – More specificity and less generality". The International Journal of the History of Sport24 (4): 411–431. doi:10.1080/09523360601157156.